Current base view orientation for drawings

[neljoshua]

When I create a drawing, it is referenced to the global x, y, and z of the model.  This works for most parts.  However, there are times when I do not want this to be the case.  For example, I created a tank with angled sides.  When I then create a drawing for thes parts of the tank, it is not possible to align the views to the face of the part (unless I am mistaken).  Fusion does not handle this in a way that I consider to be correct.

In the case of this part, I was not able to dimension the diameter of the holes correctly because they are ellipses in this view (due to the fact that the drawing is not aligned with the face of the part).  I was able to work around this, but it is not really correct.

Is there a way to align the drawing to a face rather than the global coordinates?  If not, it would be helpful if this feature was added.

[roambotics_scott]

Thought there must be a way (since you can do that with sketches) so played around with Drawings for the first time in ages.. it should be so much better by now 😕

[HughesTooling]

 Select a face and use look at then use New Named View. Then when you create a drawing use the Named View as the base view in the 2d drawing.

Mark

[HughesTooling]

One small problem using a Named View in a 2d drawing is the new do it all dimension tool doesn't work, you have to use the old basic dimension tools.

Mark

[roambotics_scott]

Just spent ~5 minutes looking around before finding that new named view is in the browser

[neljoshua]

Thanks for the info.

This helps.

[GMDesigns74]

Creating hundreds of named views in a drawing is not practical.  When working in a drawing you should be able to specify that the view is normal to a selected face, and all the dimensioning/annotation tools work from that orientation.

So a +1 to this idea.

[jonrbloom]

I have very similar issues with drawings, and the view trick helps, but as has been pointed out already doesn't scale very well.

I'm trying to create drawings for a timber greenhouse, which contains sections of timber at different angles. The fact that I have a roof joist positioned at a 45 degree angle, up the roof, doesn't mean I want to draw it that way for manufacture.

To determine the length of timber to cut, I need to add dimensions aligned to the dominant axis which is currently impossible. e.g. if my roof joist is a paralellagram, the distance between the two extreme vertices is the diagonal length, not the length of the timber I require. And because I have it positioned at an angle, horizontal/vertical dimensioning tell me what I need to know either.

We either need the ability to add components to the drawing aligned to object co-ordinates, or a way to add dimensions aligned to a selected edge. Both would be lovely 😉

[roambotics_scott]

In the case of something like that it'd be pretty trivial to identify all the planes in a design and set those as possible drawing slices.

More generally / for things without planar faces, it'd be easy enough to find the eigenvectors of the moment of inertia tensor for every body / component and use those to define natural perpendicular planes (developing that would have the added benefit of making it easy to add a moments of inertia analysis tool (which would be incredibly useful for anyone doing mechanics) and it'd be a nice step toward a simple rigid body dynamics simiulator

[TimeraAutodesk]

Hey @neljoshua, great feedback. Named Views is a decent workaround for now, but auxiliary views is the feature that will solve this problem for you, and it is on our short list to get out the door this year. 

Best,

-Timera